Here is a great idea for some family fun. Find some pine cones and make some pine cone bird feeders. You and your kids will have a great time making them together.

Binoculars are a very important tool for bird watching. This video shows you how to adjust them for your eyes.

This video shows a very unique way of keeping water for your birds from freezing over night.

I just read a MSNBC posting about the yearly migration of the Arctic Tern.  This bird flies from the North Pole to the South Pole as the season change at each pole. When it is winter at the North Pole the Arctic Tern files to the South Pole and when winter is returning to the South Pole it flies back to the North Pole. Just amazing!

The shortest journey was 36,900 miles and the longest was 50,700 miles. The study confirmed what researchers suspected for decades, the Arctic Tern has the longest annual migration of any animal in the world. Over its life time the Arctic Tern files the equivalent of three trips from the Earth to the Moon and back.

The birds do not just fly south. They spend about a month in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. They spend this time feeding to “fuel up” before they continue to fly into the waters of the South Atlantic which have less food sources for them.

After this pause, the birds continued their long journey south down the coast of northwest Africa. However, around the Cape Verde Islands — islands off the west coast of Africa, close to Senegal — the birds’ behavior surprised the research team again. About half of the birds continued down the coast of Africa, while the other half crossed the Atlantic Ocean to follow a parallel route south down the east coast of South America. All of the birds went to the Antarctic waters, none of them stayed at any location along the their route.

After spending the summer at the South Pole on their return trip to the North Pole they did not follow the most direct route back to their breeding grounds in Iceland. Instead they flew a gigantic “S” pattern through the Atlantic Ocean. This route added several thousand miles to the birds flight back to their breeding grounds. This indirect  route allowed the birds to take advantage of the global wind system and to reduce the amount of energy they need to use on their return journey.

This tree completes my current research project.  Get maximum benefit from your yard by having a variety of plants with fragrant blooms which will produce fruits and bring wild life to enjoy.

AMERICAN YELLOWWOOD  (Cladrastis kentukea)

Glorious drooping panicles of fragrant white flowers put on a great show in early summer.  The flowers are luxurious 6 to 10 inch clusters are fragrant and it is  a bee magnet. It is prized for its smooth, silvery bark, “second-best to beech” .  The yellowwood doesn’t bloom until trees are over 12 feet tall, and then the blooms are best every second or even third year.  Fall foliage is a soft yellow, thus its common name Yellowwood.  It grows 30 to 50 feet tall with a wider spread.  Prune it from an early age to encourage a graceful mature form.  Yellowwood is native to the mid-Atlantic and the Midwest.  They are now very rare in the wild.  Hardy in Zones 4 to 9.

American Yellowwood in Bloom

A Group of Yellowwood's In Fall Colors